James Rudolph was a prolific and influential Tlingit artist in the late nineteenth and early 20th centuries. Rudolph was the painter of the monumental Thunderbird Screen for the Áakʼw Ḵwáan Wooshkeetaan (Eagle/Shark clan), now in the collection of the Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA). Rudolph created a lot of model poles throughout his career and even showed his work at an exhibition in Paris, France, in 1931 (Alaska State Library – Historical Collections, ASL-P240-258). His model poles are characterized by large eyebrows, bold black lines on three sides that delineate the wings of birds, and thin, hand-carved bases with rounded edges.

This pole is unusual for being a model of a monumental totem – the Chief Shake’s Raven Pole of Wrangell, Alaska – unlike most of Rudolph’s poles which are combinations of various animal figures that don’t seem to depict a specific crest or story. This pole illustrates the story of Raven stealing the sun, moon, and stars from his grandfather. Despite being a diminutive carving, Rudolph has done a good job of including most of the figures from the original, monumental pole. This pole features, from top: Grandfather Raven in woven hat with basketry rings, the box of daylight, Raven, and Raven’s mother over a human figure holding a knife.

Christopher W. Smith